Children Matters

We understand that it is not always easy to reach an agreement with a former partner regarding how much time and contact each of you will have with your child. If you are facing this situation, our experienced child care team can help you with applying for a Child Arrangements Order and successfully putting forward your case.

We can act for children who are of an appropriate age and understanding who require their own representation in an application for a Child Arrangements Order concerning them or wish to apply for a Child Arrangements Order to enable them to spend time with their siblings and want someone to present their wishes at court.

Hollam Solicitors can help you with making an application for a Child Arrangements Order whether you are the child’s parent, guardian or other close relative. We can advise on alternatives to going to court, including mediation, collaborative law and arbitration. If your case goes to court, we will guide you through the process from start to finish. We can liaise with the other side during court proceedings to see if a negotiation can be reached.

A Child Arrangements Order is the most common court order for children issues and deals with residence (custody) and contact (access). It considers factors such as where your child will live, when they have contact with their parents and when and what types of contact can take place, for example supervised or in in a contact centre). This can be put in place until the child is either 16 or 18 depending on schooling for example. It is not unusual for a CAO to be varied over the course of a child’s life as situations change.

There are two types of Child Arrangements Order. There is a “live with” order, in which the court decides whether the child will live equally with both parents or with one parent, and “spend time with” order, where the court determines the exact timings for how long the child will spend with the parent they do not live with where the parents cannot agree.

What is the difference between Specific Issue Order and a Prohibited Steps Order?

A Specific Issue order is applied when a parent or individual with parental responsibility is allowed to make an independent decision for a child on a specific issue, while Prohibited Steps Order is used to prevent a parent or those with parental responsibility from taking a certain action involving the child.

A Specific Issue Order is an order issued by the court to resolve a disagreement between parents on any particular issue related to parental responsibility. This order is significant when it comes to empowering one of the parents to make discissions without consulting the other.

A parent with a Specific Issue Order can be made to decide the following without consulting the other parent:

• What school will the child attend
• Medical treatments the child will receive
• Level of access and contact the child will have with the estranged parent
• The religion or belief system child will be raised in
• Other specific issues the court is asked to adjudicate on

A Prohibited Steps Order is a form of an injunction placed by the court to restrict the exercise of “Parental Responsibility”. It is used by one parent to stop the other parent from making certain decisions about the child’s upbringing in the absence of an agreement.

A Prohibited Steps Order helps to prevent many things including but not limited to:

• The change of a child’s name
• The parent from moving the child outside of the UK
• The parent from relocating a child from the local area
• The child from seeing a specific person (e.g., your ex-partner’s new partner)
• The parent from allowing the child to undergo risky medical treatment

Before making an application for A Child Arrangements Order, Specific Issue Order or Prohibited Steps Order it’s mandatory to attend a preliminary “Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) unless an exemption applies. It is a short meeting conducted in the presence of a trained mediator that provides important information about mediation. The mediator meets with both parties to assess whether the mediation should be conducted or not.

Mediation should always be attempted when parents cannot agree over their child’s upbringing. Solicitors will refer you to a Mediation Service in which a trained negotiator assists them to resolve the disputes harmoniously. The agreement reached through the Mediation is then approved by the court and turned into a court order.

The Mediation aims to minimize the conflict and resolve the disagreement rather than taking it to the court. It is better if parents can come to an agreement about child issues or other issues with help of a professional rather than leaving the decision on a judge.

Is mediation required if there is domestic abuse?

No, in circumstances where domestic violence has been involved and application must be made urgently. We can let you know whether your case is an exemption for MIAM or not. If you need help on this matter you can contact us.

Grandparents can easily be excluded from seeing their grandchildren. When relationships breakdown, it is often the wider family who suffer in not seeing the grandchildren. It is often a time of emotional distress and as a grandparent you are in a difficult position in how to re-establish links with the grandchildren. You may have become estranged from your grandchildren, and you wish to seek to re-establish contact.

It is often difficult to know how to start in attempting to re-establish contact, we are here to help.

Sadly, grandparents do not have an automatic right to contact with their grandchildren. If contact has broken down, it is hoped that negotiations can rebuild contact but if not, an application would be needed to make an application to see your grandchildren under a court order. The importance of extended family in the child’s life has been established and such an application is rarely refused.

We would always suggest mediation as a first step, if possible. Mediation is where an independent person helps you to try and reach an agreement as to your contact with the grandchildren. If negotiations and mediation fail to reach an agreement, then an application to the court for permission to apply to see your grandchild would be required. In any event, before an application to the court for a Child Arrangements Order, grandparents would have to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) unless there is an exemption.

Grandparents must first apply for permission (“leave”) to apply for a Child Arrangements Order, and the court will consider each case on its own merits. Initially, the court will need to decide if leave can be granted. The court will look at a number of factors including, the involvement of the grandparents in the children’s lived, the impact of the application upon the children’s wellbeing. It would be rare for leave to be refused.